One year to kickoff, LU football pieces in place

LEE YOBBI

Published
12:00 am CDT, Sunday, September 6, 2009

It takes a department to raise a football team.

There is much more happening concerning Lamar football on a day-to-day basis than just what happens among players and coaches. There is a whole other layer of fine folks working hard to make sure that the Cardinals have every opportunity to become successful when they begin their first season since 1989 next September.

As the opener at McNeese approaches, almost exactly one year from now, here's a look at some of the behind-the-scenes operators in the Montagne Center.

Tubbs is involved in one way of another is nearly every aspect of the football program at Lamar. The buck stops with him in many ways. But his main concerns in the year to come, understandably, center around the major renovation of Provost Umphrey Stadium, which is part of a $29 million construction project. The project includes a new football complex, soccer complex and eventually softball facilities for a team scheduled to be added in 2010-11.

"We keep an eye on it all the time," Tubbs said. "We do more worrying and being concerned with that than anything."

Tubbs is also involved in approving and creating the football schedule for 2010 and beyond. Because football schedules are typically made 2-4 years in advance, and they usually require an exchange of money under a contract with each nonconference school, Tubbs is already looking at '11 and '12.

Tubbs works closely with Cardinals head coach Ray Woodard as the program prepares for launch.

"One of the biggest things is communication with our football coach and addressing his needs," Tubbs said.

The former LU head men's basketball coach can rest easily so far. The construction projects, because of good weather and planning, are right on schedule, albeit a tight one.

"Soccer is on pace for its first (scheduled) home game, so is football," Tubbs said.

Soccer is slated to play its first game in its new facility on Sept. 25. Football is scheduled for Sept. 11, 2010.

Crizer is the man to see about spending money, and football programs do that better than anything in college athletics. Lamar, being a spanking-new program with 64 players currently on the roster, needed helmets, jerseys, pads, shoes, T-shirts, shorts, a blocking sled, a goal post and even sideline apparel for coaches and staff. All those invoices and requests had to go through Crizer at one point as he tries to manage the sport's budget.

"Right now we've been making sure we have equipment ready and ordered," said Crizer. "That's been the main thing this first year. Then from that point we'll start looking at travel and ordering more things as we complete the roster."

The Cardinals will have to decide how many players, coaches and trainers they will take on road trips, particularly the long ones involving air travel. LU travels as far as Grand Forks, N.D., to play the Fighting Sioux in 2010 and there is also a trip to Atlanta to play Georgia State in the Georgia Dome. Those trips come back-to-back in late October and November.

Crizer is also responsible for helping to add equipment to the newly expanded training staff and ticket offices, which need computers and scanners.

Because of the addition of football several departments, including marketing, sports information and sports medicine have added staff.

The school has funded 34 scholarships at the total cost of about $1 million and bought about $350,000 worth of equipment.

"We've had to be creative," said Crizer, "but we've gotten so much help from Dr. Simmons (Lamar's president) and the finance people. They've been completely supportive."

There would be no student-athletes without first having students. Enter Henderson. He makes sure the players are eligible to play coming out of high school or transferring from another college. The current roster has 50 freshmen on it, 11 juniors and three sophomores. Henderson and an academic staff, including assistant AD Helene Thill, make sure all athletes have accurate transcripts and are on track to eventually graduate from Lamar.

"Our main goal here is for the students to graduate," Henderson said. "But making sure they are on track and doing what they are supposed to is as much their responsibility as it is mine.

"Our kids now more about their degrees, they live it, eat it, breathe it," he said.

Over the next year Henderson will try and make sure that current players are keeping up their grades and he will continue to help clear players as they are added to the team.

Henderson is also the liaison with the NCAA and its clearinghouse should questions arise concerning eligibility.

Brad McGowan, assistant AD, development

McGowan is the man between the athletics department and the community. His main role is fundraising and developing relationships - both individual and corporate - in Southeast Texas and beyond.

"In Texas, no state dollars can be used for athletics, you have to fund things through athletic fees (paid by students) or donations," McGowan said. "The community has been a great supporter of ours."

McGowan's most pressing concern is the upcoming, possibly January, sale of season tickets for next season. He and his staff have been working the past several months on a pricing strategy that meets both the financial needs of the university and the need of the consumer for a competitive price.

McGowan is also closely involved with the Cardinal Club, Lamar's main booster organization. The club is made up of individual donators to LU sports, and they receive certain seating, pricing and other benefits in accordance with their level of financial support.

McGowan will also be "ramping up" his pursuit of corporations to become involved with LU football specifically and athletics in general. He said the addition of football has added a great deal of appeal to LU and increased its ability to be marketed as a brand name.

Biehle's mission is to make sure that by next September nobody in Southeast Texas fails to know that Lamar football is returning to the field. And more, they will all know how to purchase tickets and enjoy the experience of being a Cardinals fan.

Biehle is making arrangements for a marketing push starting in January that includes billboard advertising, radio spots and athletes and coaches making public appearances. The university is putting together visits to elementary schools and other places in the community so that people can connect with the new program personally.

"It's basically just getting the word out," Biehle said. "We're making schedule cards and things like that so everybody knows."

There are also plans for the team to appear at a pep rally on campus later this month to further student involvement.

The other phase will be a merchandising phase. Both McGowan and Biehle want to make sure that plenty of LU football gear is available for purchase in Southeast Texas.

"We want to reach out to places like Wal-Mart and Academy Sporting Goods and have our stuff out there," said Biehle.

Rush Wood, assistant AD, sports information

Wood is an authority on Lamar football having been the school's sports information director for years among stints as a sportswriter in the area, including a nearly 10-year period at The Enterprise.

Wood is the primary go-between for the football team and the media. He, along with Brian Henry, is responsible for producing material in print and on the school's Web site. They also keep all the statistics for the team.

"Football takes an awful lot of man power," Wood said. "We're increasing our staff by 33 percent. With all the production of media guides and the day-to-day stuff we need it."

Most anything that is put out to the media involving athletics goes through the sports information office.

"Sports information gets overlooked a lot, but it's really a very important part of what goes on," said Crizer, who was the SID at LU from 1996-2007.

It is not official yet, but the university is expected to announce that its enrollment is at an all-time high, eclipsing last year's 14,000 mark. That was one of the goals of adding football was to increase the popularity of Lamar. Adding 64 football players also helps the population on campus.

The people pulling the strings behind the scenes appear ready to launch the program into a new era with new hope and expectations. At least physically, the old Lamar program is all but extinct, buried in piles of dirt and concrete around a renamed stadium. But the only thing that will truly create a new image - and make everyone's job easier across the board in the department - is putting a winning team on the field.